When Grandmamma Was New: The Story of a Virginia Childhood

Fight an

so little to Cousin Molly Belle's liking that she got away as soon as dinner was over, drawing me, a willing captive, in her train. Furthermore, she had stolen Bud,

ail fence at the lower end without being challenged. My accomplice made me climb over first, and lowered her burden carefully into my arms, before she leaned her weight upon the two hand

s, the yellowing waves parting before, and closing behind, with the surge and "swish" of a gentle surf. They smelled sweet and they felt soft, and Cousin M

wens, and the branches had a jaunty earthward cant that made climbing the easiest sort of work, and swinging an irresistible temptation. In the higher boughs were cosey crotches where one could sit, and read, and even sleep, without danger of falling. I and my court of small darkies had spent one whole July Saturday in and under the "big sweeting," wh

at he could not bite into. His real names were William Skipwith Burwell. Somebody had dubbed him "Rosebud," in the first moon of his sublunary existence, and the abbreviation was inevitable. He would probably remain "Bud" until he entered Hampton Sidney. The chances were

th on the grass, pillowed her bright head upon her

l taking one's comf

d it in the house, my mother, or Mam' Chloe, pulled my legs out straight in front of me, or shook them down, and reminded me that I was going to be a young lady before long. As if that were my fault, or as if it could be helped

st love to cr

on was not lost up

ross my legs

ladies haven't any legs,-that their feet are j

loe is a

began to say,-was it?"

fectionately, and telling me that I wa

was that of a velvet perpetual rose, shading into peach-blow, then

it, and was, unmistakably, red. She made more fun of it than anybody else, but at heart she loved her hair, and would not have exchanged it for paley-gold or ebony tresses. Bud had fastened his chubby hands in it to steady himself on his perch, as she ran, and pulled some of it loose fr

charms was wasted upon one observant little gir

her be out here than in the

m all,' Molly. They

some," I essayed. "There's Mr.

ill shredding the veil of cu

nd about, and sideways, and crossways, to children. Nor make

quite know what y

his arm 'round me-he never did that but twice before-and he said up-and-down, as serious as anything-'Yes, I do, Molly!' And he does make the beautifullest chinquapin whistles! They go

em away and want new ones. Heigh-ho! What's the use of a whistle when all th

mp and a li

le! there's a great,

d middles, and held them up, all kicking and sprawling, between a thumb and finger of each hand. I knew the tricks and the manners of what I learned, many years later, that naturalists describe as the mantis rel

pe, and studied their habits, and humored their propensities by putting several together in the prison that f

fforts to avenge their capture. I was sure, I said excitedly, that these two were fighting up in the tree, and that was the way they happened to drop so close together. Had she never se

hey'd begin to fight, 'stead of running

kpit by spreading her pocket-handkerchief up

by grappling on the instant, each rising to his full

," I commented, as umpire and manager. "They

grass, to lean over the arena. In the hush that followed the onslaught the babbling song Bud crooned to himself as he crawled over the sun-and-shade dappled turf harmonized with the

er the big sweeting. The wary advance after the recoil from the first encounter; the circling about at close quarters, each watching for his antagonist's weak point, the

that came handy; they rolled over and over, intertwined so closely as to appear like one convulsed, centipedal monster. Finally, one half of the creature gave a violent kick and was still. As the victor shook himself free of the carcass we saw the head he had bitten from the

shaking her handkerchief with coy finger-tips. "I don't thi

d I. "'Tisn't as if they had souls, you

ow with a brood of hungry young ones at her heels. Her vicious grunt, her gloating eyes, her dripping jaws, and projecting tusks, bespoke her dangerous. Only yesterday I had seen her, prowling in the barn-yard, seize an

t rang out like a silver trumpet. The huge beast halted, made as though she would turn, then gave an angry, squealing grun

upon the eye next to her. In the respite gained by the sow's stagger and recoil, our defender overtook me, caught my hand, and fled along the path trac

might meanwhile. "She will eat up Bu

ll eat m

ous as it had been pliant and sweet when we had danced through it. I was a swift runner and my limbs obeyed me well. I was conscious, moreover, of the stro

t lost its way or was entangled by the grass. The mother went back to reassure it wi

us load that was lowered to me. As Cousin Molly Belle dropped after us, our pursuer's snout

ousin Molly Belle told my mothe

jumped over the fence again. Wielding her weapon as if it were a flail, she brought it down upon the ugly head and ra

but unsmiling. I had Bud tight in my ar

to see her run," I sobbed between gig

for a kiss. He got, not one, but twenty kisses upon his wet lips, his pink face, his curly head, and the bonny e

t again, Namesake. They have a right to thei